A Reflection on 2023
This year included slowing down, losing my phone, traveling the world, and giving up side hustles...
I’ve cultivated a little New Year’s tradition for myself that I love. Each year, I choose a word that will be my “Word of the Year.” I have been doing this for many years now and found it is the best way to focus on what matters and stick to my goals — instead of setting big resolutions and heightened accountability (which is exhausting to me) my Word of the Year gently guides my decisions and actions. In the end, I feel accomplished because I have kept that word in mind! It’s a win win!
(A funny note on this: I legitimately thought I made up the concept of Word of the Year. Now that I am on substack following all my favorite writers, it turns out it’s a common practice among them… which means I am in good company and also not the trailblazer I assumed myself to be)
I am anticipating 2024 to be a pretty big year — but before looking too far ahead, I thought I’d take some time to write about 2023.
2023’s word was intentional.
Intentional, for me, looked like treating each moment as precious. Being present. Spending my time doing the things that best served me. Being mindful of what I ate, how I showed up, how I spoke, and what I thought about. Intentional living felt like thoughtful choices, a mindful body, and an open heart.
It’s funny — looking back on the year, I have seen how striving to be intentional has helped me grow as a person. For example, like most other people when they think about New Years Resolutions, I had specific goals about working out and getting super strong — including flat abs and muscular arms and strong legs. During the year, my “intentional” mindset led me to tune in to what my body wanted and needed. I learned more about female hormonal cycles and ended up giving up daily intense cardio and heavy weightlifting and have shifted to pretty much exclusively yoga, or the occasional home gym workout while listening to an audiobook (which feels more like me anyway).
I may have failed again at having the hottest body to ever exist, but I feel more like myself and more at home in myself, which I think is what really counts.
During the summer, Jonny and I went on a grand adventure traveling through Italy, France, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Not even a week into our trip, I left my phone on a train and it was never seen again (not to mention it was a brand new phone… RIP). Consequently, I was pretty much forced to be intentional with how I spent my time the whole summer — with no phone, I was more present. I couldn’t take pictures without asking someone else to (Jonny), couldn’t browse Instagram looking for ideas of places to go or things to see, so instead I took a little notebook with me everywhere. I started observing what was around me and figuring out how to put it into words. This was the time in the year that I wrote more than I ever had before, which is what led to me starting this Substack! (You can read about our time in Taiwan here!)
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At the beginning of the year, I had a goal of making X amount of money doing all these side businesses/hustles that I had been working on. By April, I noticed how exhausted I was. I gave that all up entirely and focused just on teaching. Now, I can’t imagine doing everything I was planning on doing. I like being able to put the majority of my energy into work without thinking of what else I need to do after. To some, this may seem like a failure, but to me, it is another win!
Speaking of work, this was arguably my hardest year teaching yet - which I totally did not expect. It was my second year - I was past the survival mode of first-year teachers, right?! Wrong. I felt like I was thrown into a hurricane right off the bat, and I was doggy paddling, trying to keep my head above water. During that time, my intentionality became a curse — I wanted to do it all and have each minute of each school day “count”. I was staying up late each night to get the lesson prepared for the next day. It was not serving me, and I had to make a hard line between school hours and after-school hours. Eventually, I was able to let go of some of the perfectionism that held me bound and focused my energy on cultivating relationships with my students. I might not have had perfectly planned lessons each day, but I tried to simply show up and do my best. And thankfully, we ended the semester strong!
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Focusing on intentionality led me to shift some of my beliefs spiritually, too. For everything I did, I wanted to know the intention behind it. I have (almost) finished the New Testament, and being invested in really learning Jesus’s teachings from the disciples has opened my eyes to how I can be more intentional about my relationship with Jesus and how that translates into everyday life.
Setting my word of the year as “intentional” allowed me to let go of things that were no longer serving me, spend more time with my wonderful husband and community, and pay attention a little more closely to life. I thought more about the words I spoke, the food I ate, the way I exercised, the way I honored God, and how I spent my time.
The lovely thing about life is that sometimes watching Gilmore Girls for 4 hours straight is as much as what you need as a walk around the park listening to a book — each day we can be intentional about the choices we make, but that doesn’t mean that each day will look the same.
I think New Years might be my favorite holiday. I love the freshness of it, I love that people set goals, and I love that humans everywhere continue to look forward with eagerness and optimism and hope in spite of it all.
I have mixed feelings for the year ahead — Jonny and I have some big changes coming up (not to mention it’s also an election year), and that’s going to require a big word… I’m still deciding what exactly it will be.
Cheers to 2024!
thanks for reading,
Kimber
Such thoughtful musings on the past year and what is to come. Looking forward to being a part of your journey.
Once again, I LOVED your essay on New Year's resolutions - things to focus on. And all the things you learned last year. I always have to read your writings twice, and even then I know I'm missing some things. You think deep, my granddaughter! I love you dearly! ♥